Dworkinimaginary.Pdf
CRAIG DOUGLAS DWORKIN The Imaginary Solution The production of aesthetic or narrative form is to be seen as an ideological act in its own right, with the function of inventing imaginary or formal “solutions” to unresolvable social contradictions. Fredric Jameson, The Political Unconscious Quoniam mihi quidem alia adhuc via non patet istud praestandi, nisi per imaginaria procedendo, formulam ÷``–1 littera i in posterum designabo. [Since the only way to make any progress has been by proceeding along an imaginary path, I henceforth designate the negative square root with the letter i.] Leonhard Euler, Institutionum calculi integralis rom the modernism you want,” quipped David Antin, “you get the postmodernism you deserve.”1 True “F enough, as the last quarter century has shown; Antin’s dynamic nicely encapsulates the logic of canons, in which interventions resonate both forward and backward, as lineage and precedent adjust to accommodate and account for apparent rup- tures or discontinuities. But Antin’s instant proverb is also a good reminder that whatever the dominant canon might be—whatever it is that comes to mind at the thought of “modernism” or “postmod- For opportunities to present and discuss portions of this project, I would like to thank Lou Asekoff, Benjamin Buchloh, Stuart Culver, Hal Foster, John Guillory, Yunte Huang, Alan Liu, Robert Viscusi, and especially Tania Ørum—this essay is for her. 1. I have been unable to locate the source of Antin’s adage, but it is widely quoted. See, for the earliest instance I have traced, Marjorie Perloff, “Postmodernism / Fin de siècle” 177. Contemporary Literature XLVIII, 1 0010-7484; E-ISSN 1548-9949/07/0001-0029 © 2007 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System 30 • CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE ernism” or “contemporary literature”—the lack of critical consensus on the literature of the previous century means that there are still viable alternatives for our sense of the contemporary.
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